Exploring the animosity domain and the role of affect in a cross-national context

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of animosity theory in three areas; construct domain, the mediating role of affect and model testing.Design/methodology/approachExploratory and empirical research is carried out in two countries in order to explore the domain and to test the factor structure and the hypotheses through confirmatory analysis.FindingsWe find animosity is a four-dimensional construct which impacts buying behavior through affect.Originality/valueThe research extends the domain of the animosity construct to a four-dimensional structure rather than the two-dimensional structure used in most previous studies. It is the first study to empirically test an extended animosity domain and investigate the mediating role of affective emotional responses between animosity and buying intentions.     

Technological Complexity and Country-of-Origin Effects on Binational Product Evaluation: Investigation in an Emerging Market

ABSTRACT

Research into the impact of the country of origin (COO) dimensions on product perceived quality in emerging markets is limited and does not distinguish between technologically complex/simple products. This paper investigates country-of-design (COD) and country-of-manufacture (COM) effects through their two subconstructs (global country image and the perceived capacity of the country to design/manufacture products), on the perceived quality of four products varying in their level of technological complexity. Findings indicate that consumers are more sensitive to COM than COD for complex and for simple products, and that COD only affects product quality for products carrying symbolic meaning. The findings have marketing implications for binational products entering emerging markets.     

How do controversial foreign country images affect consumers?

Research shows that controversial political–economic, social, and environmental country images affect consumer responses to foreign products. This study adds to the existing evidence by examining the contingent role of subjective country knowledge and (domestic vs. foreign) country image congruence in the relationships between foreign country image and two major determinants of country-driven (anti-)consumption: foreign product judgements and consumer animosity. The findings draw on survey data (N = 400) on Spanish consumers' views of China and Chinese apparel products. The results indicate that higher subjective knowledge about social and environmental issues (negatively) affecting the foreign country can lead to attenuated (positive) relationships between such country images and foreign product judgements. Further, more negative foreign product judgements can result from incongruent country images—that is, when consumers are more critical of the foreign than of their home country in political–economic, social, and environmental areas. Instead, there is limited support for the hypotheses involving consumer animosity as an outcome. Implications for theory, policy, and practice are discussed.     

Effect of consumer animosity on boycott campaigns in a cross-cultural context: Does consumer affinity matter?

Global companies have often suffered from unexpected boycott campaigns in foreign markets owing to consumer animosity toward a country of origin. This study aims to empirically investigate how consumer animosity (toward economic sanctions) and affinity predict consumer boycotts. We conduct a country comparison, employing the PROCESS macro to test the moderated mediation hypothesis, using data from 571 and 500 consumers in South Korea and Japan, respectively. The results find a negative indirect effect of animosity on purchase amount via boycott attitude and intention in both countries. The direct impact of animosity on purchase amount (in the case of South Korea) and the moderated mediation effect of consumer affinity (in the case of Japan) are partially supported. Therefore, the offsetting influence of consumer affinity in mitigating the effects of consumer animosity in the context of boycott campaigns is highlighted, offering novel managerial implications.     

Country-of-origin and private-label merchandise

Abstract

This research examines the impact of country-of-origin (COO) perceptions on store brands and store ownership. Online grocery shoppers were subjected to a series of manipulations involving: (a) product type – national brand or store brand; (b) product source – including local or foreign, and culturally close or culturally distant; and (c) store ownership. We find that store brands benefit from being locally sourced, and benefit further if the store is also locally owned, in terms of risk, quality, and value perceptions. If a brand is to be foreign sourced, it is preferable for it to come from a country recognised as culturally close to the seller country. Being the first study to look at the impact of COO effects on store brands, our paper offers insights about how management should take advantage of local sourcing and ownership, or put in place marketing efforts to counter negative COO effects.     

Why consumer animosity reduces product quality perceptions: The role of extreme emotions in international crises

International crises often influence consumers to reject offerings associated with a hostile country. While research has shown that negative emotions mediate the influence of animosity beliefs on consumer behavior, scholars do not examine the specific influence of different discrete emotions. This study extends prior research by demonstrating that extreme negative emotions of contempt and disgust play a key role in explaining the effects of animosity beliefs on behavior. The strength of these emotions results in a degraded image of the target country that is associated with social exclusion and intergroup hatred. In such circumstances, animosity also reduces product quality perceptions and is extremely difficult to manage. The best strategy is to eliminate any connection between the country of origin and the relevant offering. The findings of this study suggest that rather than assessing negative emotions in general, managers should consider the specific emotional reactions elicited by the country under examination.     

Iranian consumer animosity and U.S. products: A witch's brew or elixir?

This research investigates the animosity of more than 900 Iranian consumers toward the U.S. and their propensity to purchase U.S.-made products/brands in the context of a prolonged hostility between the two countries. Our results suggest that the antecedent demographic variables of education, age and foreign travel experience are inversely related to consumer animosity whereas women and students tend to hold greater consumer animosity feelings than men and non-students. Additionally we found a strong and significant inverse relationship between Iranian consumer animosity and intention to buy U.S.-made products, but no moderating effects based upon product importance or product necessity were uncovered in our consumer animosity model. The major managerial implications of our study are threefold: (1) MNCs are well advised not to ignore or underestimate the economic value of hostile markets; (2) within hostile markets, MNCs ought to be proactive and pursue alternative oversight strategies when constrained by national institutions; and (3) local and foreign competitors may exploit such animosity to better position their own products against the products of a country that is a target of consumers’ animosity.     

Guilty by stereotypic association: Country animosity and brand prejudice and discrimination

This research tests the proposition that brands suffer prejudice and discrimination due to animosity toward a country with which they have a strong stereotypic association. In the first study, attitudinal data collected across a range of brands that vary in terms of the strength of the brand–country association indicate that brands with strong stereotypic association with a country suffer direct prejudice, in the form of more negative attitudes, related to animosity. When the brand–country association is less strong, the relationship between animosity and brand attitudes is moderated by the strength of the stereotypic association. In the second study, the level of brand–country association is manipulated experimentally to provide additional evidence of its moderating role on the relationship between country animosity and both prejudice toward (more negative brand attitudes) and discrimination against (less choice) a new brand.     

Revisiting Country Image – Examining the Determinants towards Consumers' Purchase Intention of High Technological Products

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers' perceptions towards a developed country image (e.g. USA) and a developing country image (e.g. China) in relation to evaluating and buying high technological products, more specifically, smartphones. In addition, the research also examines the effects of consumer aspirations and product knowledge as consumption traits towards buying behavior. A self-administered questionnaire was employed for this study using established scales with the questions formulated around two countries, USA and China. It was administered through a mall intercept method and a particular focus will be associated to the comparison of China and USA. The stark contrast between the two countries in terms of their image and stature presents an insightful inquiry into the relevancy of country image and country of origin image importance in modern day context. The results show that country image as an evaluation cue is still pertinent in a generation where globalization is present. Results further highlights that although possessing a positive country image leads to a positive evaluation of the product country image, it however does not ensure a successful purchasing intent. Additionally, it is beneficial to note that the results for both USA/IPhone and China/Xiaomi showed a significantly greater path coefficient as compared to other causal paths. Potential moderating factors such as product involvement or pricing can also be explored. Future research should attempt to account for socio economic or demographic factors such as important controls for education, social status and income that are bound to impact on the relationships at the heart of the proposed research hypotheses.     

Broad and Narrow Country-of-Origin Effects and the Domestic Country Bias

ABSTRACT

Across three studies and three countries, this research specifies the effect of consumer ethnocentrism on domestic country bias. Extending extant research, it distinguishes the moderating effects of broad (country image, country production image) and narrow (country product category image) country-of-origin effects, demonstrating that the latter mitigate domestic country bias more strongly than the former. Moreover, nationality emerges as an antecedent of consumer ethnocentrism and domestic country bias. The findings enable international marketers to predict domestic country bias in different country markets. Additionally, this research advocates using a finer-grained, narrow view of country-of-origin effects, instead of a broad perspective.     

Modeling the Effects of an International Crisis on Brand Equity

ABSTRACT

This research provides an analysis of the impact of an international crisis on brand equity. More specifically, the author tests a comprehensive model that examines the joint impact of animosity as well as the social pressure to avoid brands that originate from a controversial country. He explores the impact of what came to be known as the Mohammed controversy, which involved the Danish press publishing a series of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed on a Danish brand. Data were collected using a survey from 307 consumers in Kuwait. The findings show that animosity is not related to overall brand equity but is related to brand quality; moreover, subjective norms are negatively associated with overall brand equity. These results highlight the importance of subjective norms in influencing overall brand equity in times of international crises between nations.     

基于Fishbein合理行为模型的国家形象对中国消费者购买意向影响研究——以美、德、日、韩四国国家形象为例

This study finds that Chinese consumers’ perception of country image can be divided into four dimensions: appraisal of the relationship with China, degree of country development, general product appraisal, and general people appraisal. The items in these four dimensions vary for different countries. The study incorporates country image into the Fishbein’s model, and finds good fitness between the model and data, which suggests that the Fishbein’s model has good generalizability and cross-culture adaptability. Results show that country image has no direct impact on purchase intention; instead, it impacts on consumers’ purchase intention indirectly through the effects on functional appraisal and symbolic appraisal, brand attitude and subjective norm. The effect of country image on purchase intention varies for different products. Specifically, the effect of country image on purchase intention of apparel is greater than that of cell phone, and that on purchase intention of car is the lowest.     

The asymmetric dominance of cognitive versus affective country image in driving purchase: Conditioning roles of cognition-affect intra-valence nature and product type

Despite the vast amount of research on country image, extant country-of-origin (COO) literature remains ambiguous about which of the country image dimensions, cognitive country image (CCI) or affective country image (ACI), is more important in driving purchase. Drawing on the primacy of affect theory, this research develops a nomological framework that clarifies this ambiguity and explains whether, when, and why ACI/CCI takes precedence in determining purchase decision. With a large-scale study on Chinese consumers responding to two types of products from four countries, the findings unveil the asymmetric dominance of CCI and ACI in influencing purchase intention via consumer cognitive product judgment and affective product evaluation, which is conditioned by the dyadic effects of country cognition-affect intra-valence nature and product type. This research contributes through illuminating the differential roles of CCI and ACI in influencing consumer reactions to foreign products, the boundary conditions and underlying mechanism of the differences.     

Feedback effects of brand extensions on the brand image of global brands: a comparison between Spain and Norway

Abstract

Global brands often attempt to increase their sales through the launch of brand extensions. Such a strategy may, however, dilute existing brand beliefs at an international level, as two sets of data from Norway and Spain indicate. This paper illuminates how the attitude towards a brand extension affects the image of a parent brand. The extension attitude is mainly determined by the degree of perceived fit between the extension and the parent brand image. In the Spanish sample, it is also determined by the degree of familiarity with the parent brand and the perceived fit at the product category level. After analysing these relationships, the paper focuses on the moderating role of two dimensions of consumer innovativeness: hedonist innovativeness (tied to need for stimulation) and social innovativeness (tied to need for uniqueness). Finally, the cultural orientation of the origin country is analysed as a moderating factor.     

The Impact of the Change from Partial to Full Foreign Ownership on the Internationalization of Foreign Subsidiaries

SUMMARY

This paper aims to study how host country firms' internationalization has been impacted by their foreign owners' achievement of full ownership if the companies were not fully foreign-owned at first. It starts with a review of the existing traditional internationalization literature: the Uppsala model, the innovation-related internationalization models and the Finnish model. Then it reviews other research streams: born global, foreign direct investment (FDI) and network literature and the literature on subsidiary roles. A conceptual framework is developed. Then, after a methodology section, four Estonian casestwo from banking and two from the textiles industryare introduced. After the discussion of the results, some managerial and research implications are drawn.     

Positioning in political marketing: How semiotic analysis adds value to traditional survey approaches

Abstract

The 2010 British election particularly focused on the party leaders’ images – a departure in fifty years of British elections. The principal contribution of the article is to illustrate how a combined approach to assessing leadership positioning using both the traditional survey and semiotic analysis can provide insights into what image attribute dimensions end up in the minds of members of the public (actual positioning) and on what image attribute dimensions party marketers are trying to position themselves (intended positioning). Using data from the 2010 British general elections, our findings indicate that the combined methodological approach would be particularly useful for brands that need repositioning, those whose image attribute positions change dramatically over time, and those who wish to target previously unresponsive target audience segments.     

How anticipated regret influences the effect of economic animosity on consumers’ reactions towards a foreign product

We use regret theory to explain the negative effect of economic animosity on consumers’ reactions towards a foreign product (i.e., product judgment and reluctant to buy). We conduct our study in Taiwan by collecting data via an online survey. Our results show that consumers’ economic animosity increases their anticipated regret towards purchasing a foreign product originating from a target market of animosity. Specifically, anticipated regret is found to mediate the link between economic animosity and foreign product judgment, which in turns affects consumers’ reluctance to buy. Our study is the first to consider the role of anticipated regret in explaining the negative effect of economic animosity on consumers’ reactions towards a foreign product. We also contribute to research by introducing two antecedents of economic animosity: perceived economic competition and consumer ethnocentrism.     

Using macro cross‐border trade data to better understand micro‐level country of origin effects

The article adapts an estimation methodology from the border effects literature to reveal consumer ethnocentrism versus cosmopolitanism in each country, and animosity versus nostalgia between country pairs. The measurements rely on actual macro cross‐border trade data rather than individual purchase intentions typically used in the international marketing literature. The results from early 2010s suggest that purchasing intentions against imports found in this literature do not necessarily translate into actual consumption behavior in international trade. It is quite possible that the consumers are unable to assess country of origin of production despite growing ethnocentrism, and base their actual purchases on perceived origin of product brands. Specifically, it is found that most countries are cosmopolitan rather than ethnocentric, particularly developed countries, favoring any foreign product over domestic products. Most countries also have nostalgic purchasing behavior from specific trade partners with historical linkages. Outside the specific traditional animosities between a country pair, a developed country is relatively less open to imports from another developed trade partner, while an emerging country welcomes it more especially from another emerging trade partner.     

Premium generic brand (PGB) choice vis-à-vis generic and national brands: A scenario comparison for self-use,family consumption and gift giving in a food versus non-food and cross-cultural context

PurposeThe study models factors affecting brand category choice for generic as well as national brands, and next contrasts them to a new brand category: premium generic brands (PGB). PGB are a new occurrence in brand and product management, and consumer reactions to PGB are not yet well understood.Design/methodology/approachThree purchase motivation scenarios were presented to 553 consumers to test for their purchase intentions for self-consumption, family use or gift giving. A quasi-experiment was chosen where respondents were exposed to store-like presentations of actual real life products and asked for their likelihood to choose the national or generic brand over the new PGB. The study applied multivariate testing such as MANOVA.FindingsSeparate models were developed for food and non-food choice through backward deletion regression analyses, and the most parsimonious models revealed strong similarities for self as well as family consumption choices, but distinct drivers for gifts. Value for money, image and satisfaction are key factors in brand choice overall, but for gifts, ‘image’ overpowers all other predictors.Originality/valueThe study identified the Chinese as a distinct consumer segment for brand choice since they are more open to potentially consider PGB as gifts, whereas Caucasians only buy national brands for gift giving.     

Ethnocentrism and Its Effect on the Chinese Consumer: A Threat to Foreign Goods?

This study examines ethnocentric tendencies including consumer ethnocentrism, country of origin, product judgments, willingness to buy, and animosity toward foreign products among a sample of economically progressive Chinese college students in a coastal port city in northern China. Survey results suggest that these Chinese consumers held a rather positive view of, and little animosity toward, the United States. They also did not show high levels of ethnocentrism or country-of-origin effects. These results would suggest openness toward foreign products. While Chinese consumers report little animosity or ethnocentric tendencies toward U.S. products, animosity, country of origin, and ethnocentrism are significantly correlated with willingness to buy. This suggests managers need to carefully position foreign products with respect to Chinese consumer expectations. Impacts of traditional collectivist views of the Chinese culture are suggested as an avenue for future research with respect to ethnocentrism and willingness to buy foreign products.